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Philosophy

The philosophy department at Mount Holyoke combines the focus on teaching typical of a small college, with a faculty actively engaged in philosophical research. Our faculty have published on such diverse topics as disagreement, modal logics, film romance, scientific confirmation, and emotions in fictional appreciation. We also benefit from the wider resources available through the other members of the Five College Consortium: Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Philosophy is a discipline that encourages the examination of life in all its dimensions. Our fundamental assumptions about right and wrong, beauty, truth, the mind, language, and meaning are exposed to careful scrutiny in philosophy classes. We encourage you, as a student of philosophy, not only to strive to understand what philosophers have written, but also to be a philosopher yourself - to think with depth and clarity about issues that are fundamental to the human condition. Whether taking a course on philosophy of film, ethics, feminist philosophy, logic, or philosophy of science, philosophy will leave you seeing the world anew.